Letter of the Day | Worrying rise of right-wing politics

THE EDITOR: Madam

Who colt the game

It’s not natty dread

It must be bald head

Somebody play the wrong domino

And want the world to follow … .

– Rita Marley

The words of this song are instructive in looking at some major political development in the world. “Somebody played the wrong domino” and others in the world are following. The issue has to do with the rise of right-wing politics and insurgency against democracy.

Donald Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in 2020. Trump declared that he won the election, but it was stolen. When his lies could not hold, the centre fell apart on January 6, 2021 when right-wing forces descended upon Congress. The insurgents launched an assault on Congress with such confidence like they knew the security of the Capitol would not be adequate to stop their attack. They reportedly chanted “Hang Mike Pence”, who was the vice president and presiding over the counting of the votes of the electors. Of course this was unprecedented political act in America, that shining “city on the hill”, a monument of democracy.

In October 2022 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated Jair Bolsonaro, in the second round of the presidential election in Brazil. In fact, Lula won both rounds by narrow margins. Bolsonaro refused to accept the election results and charged that the election was stolen. He refused to recognise Lula as president and made a hasty exit from Brazil to the United States to Lula’s installation as the new president.

Bolsonaro’s supporters meanwhile unleashed massive demonstration against the new regime that culminated into the January 8 mass invasion on Brazil’s Congress buildings in a style somewhat similar to the January 6, 2021 insurgency on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.

The world was taken by surprise when in early December 2022 the German government held 130 raids across the country and arrested dozens of people associated with a plot to overthrow the German government. According to published reports, the group comprised people influenced by Qanon conspiracy theories and espousing a doctrine similar to far rights groups in America.

These developments did not take place in the Third World, but in developed countries, and they had posed grave danger for what we know as democracy across the globe. Who colt the game in global democratic politics? “Somebody play the wrong domino and want the world to follow.” This worrying because there is a view that democracy is on the decline across the world. Where do we go from here?

LOUIS MOYSTON

Kingston